First-principles conductance of nanoscale junctions from the polarizability of finite systems

Matthieu J. Verstraete, P. Bokes, R. W. Godby

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A method for the calculation of the conductance of nanoscale electrical junctions is extended to ab initio electronic structure methods that make use of the periodic supercell technique and applied to realistic models of metallic wires and break junctions of sodium and gold. The method is systematically controllable and convergeable and can be straightforwardly extended to include more complex processes and interactions. Important issues, about the order in which the thermodynamic and static (small field) limits are taken, are clarified, and characterized further through comparisons to model systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number124715
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
Volume130
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Mar 2009

Keywords

  • ab initio calculations
  • electric admittance
  • gold
  • nanocontacts
  • sodium
  • thermodynamic properties
  • PSEUDOPOTENTIALS
  • TRANSPORT

Cite this